Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/307

 282 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. is a circle measuring three metres thirty centimetres in diameter, surrounded by four pillars which helped to support the roof. That it marks the site of the hearth is scarcely open to ques- tion. Throughout antiquity, the hearth was the central point, the ombilic, as it was styled by poets and philosophers, around which sat the household whilst the food was being prepared. Of the hearth strictly so called, nothing remains; but from traces of a thick clay coating extending around the circle, it is con- jectured that the hearth itself was built up to some height above the ground with brick and mud. It afforded a convenient foot- stool whilst the hands were stretched out towards the fragrant fire of pine- wood. Granting the site of the hearth, it became necessary to provide an opening over it for the escape of the smoke, which otherwise would fill the room and make it unbearable. Outlet through the door, or through slits in the side-walls, or between the rafters of the loft, would do something to clear the apartment, but not enough. A square hole in the roof would not only meet the case, but serve to ventilate the room ; this, however, though very well in fine weather, would not work in winter, just when a fire is most needed, for it would not only let in the cold but the rain, which would put out the fire. That it can rain heavily in ArgoHs I have experienced more than once. The builder s art of that period was sufficiently advanced to cope with this difficulty. We might suppose that a "lantern," like the openings which the Armenian peasantry, says Botta, place in the centre of their roofs, was erected here in the shape of a small dome, open at the top, which served at once for window and chimney.^ The plan proposed by Dorpfeld, which he calls the '* basilican mode," is different, and may be thus explained. He raises the central portion of the roof in the longitudinal section of his restored megaron (PI. III.), i.e. that which is comprised between the four columns around the hearth, and therefore immediately over it. Large or narrow slits could be made at will in the vertical walls of this species of lantern, for the entrance of light and the escape of smoke. Egypt was familiar with this mode of ventilating and lighting a vast apartment, and this was the system adopted by Chipiez in his restoration of the Great Hypostyle Hall at Per- sepolis. Either way, by a lantern or a louvre, they got what they
 * "1 A plan of the lantern in question will be found in History of Art